Our Creed is Love

Church Documents

Our Mission is

following in the Way of Jesus in Christian love, spiritual and social transformation, biblical hospitality, grace-filled inclusion, and joyful worship.

Our Vision

Grounded in love and moved by hope, Open Table United Church of Christ is a
welcoming and safe spiritual home for all. We strive to provide progressive
Christian theology and to work through advocacy and social justice for the
oppressed in our world.

“My world teaches me to worship perfect surfaces, good times at all times, total comfort, and the latest gadget. My world teaches me to place my faith in clichéd, constricting roles. In pre-packaged identities and fantasies of complete leisure, and quick fixes to all of my problems. My world claims that pain can be eased by the latest treat—or Tweet.

But I demand a different faith in a Still-speaking God who breaks through the next shining surface begging me to like it, and opens my eyes to what may be a painful truth, but also to the places where love can be set loose. “

—Neil Ellingson

An Evolving Life of Faith

Our members and active participants come from wide-ranging church backgrounds—some from no previous church background at all. While our pastor and most of the congregation self-identify as progressive Christians, what unites us is the love of God. For us, the life of faith is not about ascribing to certain doctrines, but instead about aligning our lives with God’s love, following in Jesus’ hopeful ways, and being guided by the Spirit of peace.

Some churches use the term “progressive” to mean a certain worship style, and some use the term “progressive” to signal their progressive social commitments. However, we use the term “progressive” in a more basic, theological sense. We read and believe in the Bible as interpreted through current biblical scholarship, the wisdom of other faith traditions, and even the truth-seeking traditions of science.